Marissa Ambio
Associate Professor of Hispanic Studies
Marissa Ambio specializes in 19th-21st C. Latino literature. Her scholarship on Cuban emigre periodicals of the Ten Years War (1868-1878) focuses on the articulation of nation through an exploration of transnational print culture. Her research has appeared in Latin American Research Review, Revista de Estudios Hispánicos and Hispania. Ambio’s scholarship on 20th and 21st C. Latino literature examines masculinity, race and Latino spiritualities. Her book manuscript, under contract with The Ohio State University Press, questions the limits of Latino literary taxonomies and employs new classifications to examine canonical literature and works marginal to the canon.
Ambio is co-author and co-director of an NEH Humanities Initiatives grant (2023-2025) to develop an interdisciplinary curatorial studies minor. The grant funds course development, student internships and fellowships at partner institutions, including Burke Library’s Special Collections & Archives, the Wellin Museum of Art, the Everson Museum of Art, the Fenimore Art Museum, MOST, and Munson.
Recent Courses Taught
Introduction to U.S. Latinx Literature
Nueva York: Contemporary Literature and Art
Spanish for Heritage and Native Speakers
Advanced Grammar
Conversation on Hispanic Cultures
Intensive Beginning Spanish
Research Interests
Nuyorican literature, U.S. Latino spiritualities, Latino children’s literature, Latino literary taxonomy; Heritage/U.S. Spanish; Latin American modernismo, Spanish-American journalism, the crónica.
Distinctions
- John R. Hatch Excellence in Teaching Award, 51ÁÔÆæ
- Dr. Edgardo Yordán Humanities Faculty Research Grant, 51ÁÔÆæ
- The Class of 1966 Career Development Award, 51ÁÔÆæ
- Joseph T. Crescenti Best Article Prize, “Cuba’s Laborante,” Latin American Research Review. New England Council on Latin American Studies (nominated)
- Mellon Mays Career Enhancement Adjunct Faculty Fellowship Award, The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation (declined)
- Mellon Mays Fellowship Travel Research Grant, The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation
- Paul H. Klingenstein Fellowship, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Columbia University
Select Publications & Presentations
Publications
- “Diaspora.” Latin American Literature in Transition, 1870-1930. (Cambridge UP, 2023)
- “Drown-ed Out: Literary Silence in Junot Díaz’s Short Stories.” Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispánicos (2021)
- “Fights of Fancy: Narrative and Visual Modes of Resistance in Nicholasa Mohr’s Nilda (1973).” Label me Latina/o. vol. 12, Spring 2022, pp. 1-14.
- “Nuyorican Mestizaje or la gran familia neorriqueña in Piri Thomas’s Down These Mean Streets.” Centro Journal. vol. 33, no. 3, 2021, pp. 36-55.
- “Christopher González. Reading Junot Díaz.” Hispania. 100.2 (2017): 305-06.
- “Cuba’s Laborante: The Worker as Revolutionary Identity.” Latin American Research Review. 50.3 (2015): 157-174.
- “Illustrating Identity in the Cuban Émigré Press: Latin American Transnationalism in El Ateneo.” Revista de Estudios Hispánicos.48.2 (2014): 307-328.
- “Deism and the Authorship of Jicoténcal.” Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage, Volume VI. Ed. Antonia I. Castañeda and A. Gabriel Meléndez. Houston: Arte Público P, 2006. 199-213. Rpt. Recovering Hispanic Religious Thought and Practice of the United States. Ed. Nicolás Kanellos. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars P, 2007. 76-89.
- “The Authorship of Jicoténcal.” Hispania 88.3 (2005): 445-55.
Presentations
- “Deism and the Authorship of Jicoténcal.” Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage, Volume VI. Ed. Antonia I. Castañeda and A. Gabriel Meléndez. Houston: Arte Público P, 2006. 199-213. Rpt. Recovering Hispanic Religious Thought and Practice of the United States. Ed. Nicolás Kanellos. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars P, 2007. 76-89.
- “The Authorship of Jicoténcal.” Hispania 88.3 (2005): 445-55.
- “Nineteenth-Century Latino Print Culture: Latin American Regionalism in New York’s El Ateneo (1874)” LASA Congress XXXVII. Boston, May 24-27, 2019.
- “The Nineteenth-Century U.S. Latino Immigrant Narrative in El Ateneo (1874).” ACLA Annual Meeting. Washington, DC. March 7-10, 2019.
- “At the Intersection of Race and Gender: Identity in Piri Thomas’s Down These Mean Streets.”North East Council on Latin American Studies. Worcester, November 10, 2018.
- “Drown-ed Out: Literary Silence in the Short Stories of Junot Díaz.” Congresos Internacionales de Literatura Hispánica. Granada, Spain. June 27-29, 2018.
College Service
Advisory Board for Academic Advising, Member
Appeals Board, Member
Curatorial Studies Initiative, Co-Director
Encuentros, Managing Editor, Hispanic Studies
Humanities Center Advisory Board, Member
Judicial Board, Member
Latin American and Latine Studies Program Committee, Member
Mesa de español Faculty Coordinator, Hispanic Studies
Teaching Assistant Faculty Coordinator, Hispanic Studies
Professional Affiliations
American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese
American Comparative Literature Association
C19
Latin American Studies Association
Latina/o Studies Association
Modern Language Association
Appointed to the Faculty
2017Educational Background
Ph.D., Columbia University
M.Phil., Columbia University
M.A., Columbia University
B.A., Williams College
